Dr. Marnin Fischbach on Aurora shooting suspect

Dr. Fischbach initial take on James Holmes

The big question about the Aurora mass shooting on Friday, is why? I talked to Psychiatrist, Dr. Marnin Fischbach about what may have fueled the rage of the shooter. Dr. Fischbach is a Pittsburgh mental health expert with nearly 40 years of experience in Psychiatry. He also has ties to Colorado. He did his Psychiatric training at the University of Colorado, the same university that suspected shooter James Holmes is in the process of withdrawing from prior to the shooting.

I asked Dr. Fischbach if this was an act of anger or rage. He told me, "One would have to look on it as an act of rage not as a simple act of anger. These people did not assault him. To go that far and kill that many people who didn't have anything to do with him means there is a source of great rage."

I also asked him about why the movie Batman to allegedly show that murderous rage by suspect James Holmes. Dr. Fischbach's response was, "Such an individual who may have been emotionally injured and may have been responding with rage is trying to show on a psychological level that he is not weak and not injured. Reportedly, Holmes dyed his hair like the Joker character and tried to look very similar to the Joker played by the late Heath Ledger in earlier movies.

Another key question is if Holmes may be clinically insane. Dr. Fischbach responded with, "I'm assuming this is not an act of psychosis or an act of delusion, not coming from hallucinations. It was well thought. You would have had a psychotic individual acting more impulsively."

Dr. Fischbach reminded me several times these are just hypotheses based on early reports about the suspected shooter. Dr. Fischbach said he would have to examine Holmes to really learn more about his alleged motivations and what possible triggers set him off to now be linked to Colorado's second deadliest mass shooting.

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